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The art.spoke.soul exhibition has been growing again. Milkwood is the final venue of the Bike Art Trail Cardiff 2012 to open its doors to cyclists for this years Cardiff Cycle Festival.

There is work by Lucy Driscoll, Eliza Southwood, Mark Robson, Lucy Freegard and more. Resident artist Sophie Elliott has begun her cycling journeys through the wet Welsh landscape from Caerphilly to Cardiff. She’ll be working towards an open evening at Milkwood Gallery on 12th July.

Places are still available for Cardiff Cycle Tours Art Trail; a ride from The Coal Exchange, along the Ely Trail, to Roath, and back through Bute Park and the Taff Trail. A conversation between myself and artist Sophie Elliott will also feature. Book through www.cardiffcycletours.com.

Come along to PrintHaus this Saturday for the Barenaked Micro Beer Festival from 2pm and see the exhibition. If you fancy riding the trail, I could lead a group from 3.30pm(ish); just turn up with a bike.

I’m hopping around with excitement in preparation for the Cardiff Bike Art Trail 2012. Today, I have been painting Milgi’s window with Sophie Barras with a collaborative design to celebrate our love for the bicycle.

Sophie’s back tomorrow to complete it. Mary Anne Cooke and Jacob Stead have collaborated to create a Circue de Cyclisme in Sho Gallery’s window. It’s adorable!

Route maps are available from:

Milkwood Gallery, Lochaber Street;

Sho Gallery, Inverness Place;

Reg Braddick Cycles, Broadway;

The Bike Shed, Cathedral Road;

Cyclopaedia, Crwys Road;

Sustrans, Bute Street.

Tomorrow, I’ll be hanging work in The Printhaus, Llandaff Road, and next week, in Milkwood Gallery. I hope you can all make it to some events at Cardiff Cycle Festival starting this weekend. I’m certainly going to do the Peter Finch tour with Cardiff Cycle Tours. Can’t wait!

Jon Bunney, animator and illustrator, seeks influence from cycling and also being outdoors, up mountains and pedalling under forest cover. Nature and human form are a large part of his work and cycling has been a huge part of Jon’s life, his first memories being of bikes. Cycling is an integral part of Jon’s well being and fitness. He recently got to grips with riding again after an episode of ill health and said: “It’s an excellent way to gauge my fitness”.

In search of a little respite from the constant traffic crescendos outside my house on Allensbank Road, and a little less serious cycling, I headed out past Rhiwbina to Wenallt Woods. I parked the bike at the bottom of Wenallt Road, locking up to a road sign or someother forgotten construction and took the nearest path into the woods.

Within minutes, an emulated sky of bluebells had appeared under the canopy of beech trees, which date back to at least 1600AD. The Cardiff Council managed pocket of ancient woodland consists of Oak, Hazel and Beech. There is a red circular walk that can be followed from the car park, but I chose to meander around its abundant pathways watching squirrels breaching out of the sea-blue floor.

“..such things are wild. Seeing them, you are made briefly aware of a world at work around and beside our own, a world operating in patterns and purposes that you do not share. These creatures, you realise, that live by voices inaudible to you.” – Robert Macfarlane.

The evidence of play; dens and rope swings, took me back to my childhood of wading through my local brook, extricating ancient remains and plunging from tree top to river. For me, it’s important to find wildness outside of our man-made environment. Wenallt Woods is perfect for this and a stone’s throw out of Cardiff, can be easily accessed without a car.

A super talented illustrator originally from Bradford and living in Bristol is making up some visual treats for the art.spoke.soul. trail at Cardiff Cycle Festival this June. Jacob graduated from the University of West England with a first class honours in 2011. One year on and Jacob has illustrations in Boneshaker (above illustration), Wired, Oh Comely, and Radio Times.

Jacob finds Bristol an easy city to get about by bicycle and makes the most of good weather by taking the 13 mile off road route out of his metropolis to Bath on the connecting Railway Path. I certainly think I’ll give this a go when the rain lets up! For now as we’re stuck in an endless Winter, I’m writing something inspired by my December Scandanavian experience.

I’ve been working on some new illustrations myself this week. It all started with an iplayer typo “Have I got eewes for you” and like most of my ideas; a good ride. I know it’s been done before, but not with a velo.

With a whiff of nostalgia, I invited Sarah to get involved in the bike art trail project for Cardiff Cycle Festival 2012.

Sarah has simply blossomed as a creative since we were sketching out early artworks in Monmouth Comprehensive sixth form studio. She certainly ‘likes to make stuff’ and currently produces letter press prints, gorgeous illustrations and bound books.

With a penchant for poetry and literature, Sarah has a diverse sweep of inspiration and it is surely her visible passion for words that gives her a unique artistic fabrication. I’m a massive fan!